Mitt Romney on Foreign Policy

Former Republican Governor (MA)

Unacceptable for Iran to become a nuclear nation

Q: How would you approach the new reality for our ally, Israel, and the existential threats it faces from Iran, Hamas, and Hezbollah?

ROMNEY: Very simple. You start off by saying that you don't allow an inch of space to exist between you and your
friends and your allies. The president went about this all wrong. He went around the world and apologized for America. He addressed the United Nations in his inaugural address and chastised our friend, Israel, for building settlements and said nothing
about Hamas launching thousands of rockets into Israel. The right course for us is to stand behind our friends, to listen to them, and to let the entire world know that we will stay with them and that we will support them and defend them. And with
regards to Iran, which perhaps represents the greatest existential threat to Israel, we have to make it abundantly clear: It is unacceptable--and I take that word carefully--it is unacceptable for Iran to become a nuclear nation.

No European-style solutions to an American problem

With our economy in crisis, the President and his fellow liberals turned to Europe for their answers. Like the Europeans, they grew the government. Theirs is a European-style solution to an American problem. It does not work there and it will never work
here!

The right answer is not to believe in European solutions. The right answer is to believe in America--to believe in free enterprise, capitalism, limited government--and to believe in the constitution, as it was written and intended by the founders

Different countries' paths to decline came from isolation

The Ottoman Empire spanned 700 years. But while Europe embarked on the early stages of manufacturing, the Ottomans did not. The Ottomans' growing isolation was reinforced by the conviction that their holy scriptures provided all the knowledge that was
necessary.

Like the Ottomans, the Spanish and Portuguese achieved wealth through plunder, and then shut their borders--and their minds--to innovation, technology, and learning.

China declined [because] as ships from foreign lands docked in their
ports, the Chinese feared cultural contamination. China's cultural and economic isolation continued in the 20th century: Mao saw learning and innovation as threats.

By 1860, Britain's economy was the biggest in the world, But whereas other
nations embraced new technology, Britain reversed course and tried to contain it.

The different countries' paths of decline [all included] isolation; most important, isolation from knowledge. This is a lesson that shouldn't be lost on us.

In long term, Chinese reforms lead to demanding freedom

The strategy pursued by China is based on free enterprise. Unlike the West, it is also based on authoritarian rule. On its face the strategy is contradictory: the oppression of an authoritarian regime that severely limits individual freedoms must surely
stifle entrepreneurship and enterprise. The conflict is so apparent that many Western observers have predicted that as China`s economy and trade develop, the country will trend toward democracy and freedom.

China's leaders see things quite differently
They believe that the economic vitality produced by free enterprise, combined with the stability and vision of wise leaders, unaffected by popular whim, creates the winning strategy. Autocracies of the twentieth century were often wedded to socialism;
its abject economic failure doomed these governments. But China is banking that having embraced a form of free enterprise, their autocratic future will be very different than their past failures.

Post-WWII role: defeat threats to progress of freedom

At the end of World War II, the US executed a dramatic and profoundly meaningful shift in our relationship with the rest of the world. After a long tradition of guarding our own hemisphere while deliberately attempting to stay isolated from the affairs o
Europe and Asia, the US found itself the greatest single power amidst a world in chaos and disrepair. Visionary leaders set out to help create a new international order with the US in the permanent lead

So the president and the leaders of both parties
shifted America's foreign policy. America took on the task of anticipating, containing, and eventually defeating threats to the progress of freedom in the belief that actively protecting others was the best way to protect ourselves.

Broadly construed,
the new order had three pillars: active involvement and participation in world affairs; active promotion of American and Western values including democracy, free enterprise, and human rights; and a collective security umbrella for America and her allies.

American Exceptionalism means America need not decline

In a world composed of nations that are filled with rage and hate for the US, our president should proudly defend her rather than continually apologize for her. I reject the view that America must decline. I believe in American exceptionalism. I am
convinced that we can act together to strengthen the nation, to preserve our global leadership, and to protect freedom where it exits and promote it where it does not. What is ahead of us now will not be easy. It will be difficult to overcome the
challenges we face, to maintain our national strength and purpose even as China, Russia, and the jihadists pursue their own ambitions. It will be difficult to repair the damage from the economic panic of 2008 and the intemperate actions that have been
justified as steps to remedy it. I don't worry about our ability to overcome any problem or threat. But I do wonder whether we will take this action that is timely, and that we will act before the necessary correction is massively disruptive.

National turnaround requires leadership; consensus; strength

Throughout history, there have been fortuitous reversals of national decline. One or more of four conditions or catalysts have been present when corrective action was successfully undertaken.

The occurrence of a catastrophic event that is
alarming enough to spur action but not so large that it dooms the nation.

The presence of a great leader--a person of uncommon vision, political courage, statesmanship, and persuasiveness.

National consensus, spurred by either crisis or national
leaders

The final conducive condition for turnaround is when a nation enjoys deep, broad-based national strength--a productive and inventive economy, an educated and entrepreneurial population, and an extensive bench of able leaders.

The lessons
from past powers can inform our prospects for preserving America's place in the world. The good news is that America possesses the qualities that have allowed great nations in the past to reverse course and to overcome challenges.

Unless US changes course, we’ll no longer be superpower

We face a new generation of challenges, challenges which threaten our prosperity, our security and our future. I am convinced that unless America changes course, we will become the France of the
21st century--still a great nation, but no longer the leader of the world, no longer the superpower. And to me, that is unthinkable.

America is unique in the history of the world.
In the history of the world, whenever there has been conflict, the nation that wins takes land from the nation that loses. [The US] took no land. No land from Germany, no land from Japan, no land from Korea.
America is unique in the sacrifice it has made for liberty, for itself and for freedom loving people around the world. The best ally peace has ever known, and will ever know, is a strong America.

Putin is a troubling leader and an authoritarian

Q: When you look at President Putin, what do you see?

A: Putin is heading down the same road that we’ve seen authoritarian leaders in Russia and the former Soviet Union head down before, and it’s very troubling. You see a leader who wants to reestablis
Russia as one of the great powers of the world, potentially a superpower, potentially the superpower. And he has -- the evidence of that, of course, is his elimination of the free press, his terrorizing and imprisoning political prisoners, \
and unexplained murders that are occurring. It’s another repressive regime, which he is overseeing. And the question is what do you in a circumstance like that and what it portends for the future of the world.
What we have today in the world is four major, if you will, strategies at play. One, they’re the nations with the energy, like Russia. They’re trying to use energy as a way to take over the world.

The US is the only major power believing in free enterprise

China is saying we’re going to use communism, plus sort of a Wild West form of a free enterprise. We’re going to give nuclear weapons -- or nuclear technology to the Iranians, we’re going to buy oil from the Sudanese. You’ve got China. Then you’ve got al
Qaeda, which says we want to bring everybody down. And then finally there’s us, the only major power in the world that says we believe in free enterprise and freedom for the individual. And this great battle is going on right now, and it’s essential for
us to strengthen other friends like ourselves, and to confront one by one these other strategies and help turn them towards modernity so that the world our kids inherent does not have to know war. Will there be war?
Of course there will always be terrible events in the world. But let’s do everything in our power to keep war from occurring. Move these voices of moderation and having such strength in our own military that people never question our ability to respond.

Free Cuba and eliminate threat of people like Hugo Chavez

Q: Cuban dictatorship has survived nine US presidents. What would you do differently?

A: You’ve got to think about who Fidel Castro is, and who Raul Castro is as well. We call them strongmen--dictators, totalitarian leaders. And yet these are
individuals who are not strong. Look at what they have done: People wearing a wristband that says “change” are arrested--25 of them just for wearing a wristband. These Castro brothers are cowards, and we have to recognize they are cowards. And for that
reason, the course for America is to continue our isolation of Cuba. It is not to say, as Barack Obama on the Democratic side said, that he would dignify the Castros with a personal visit to Cuba. That’s not the way to go. Instead, it’s to bring our
friends together to isolate Cuba, to put together a strategy that helps all of Latin America, weakens Hugo Chavez who is propping up Castro. We need a Latin American policy that frees Cuba and that eliminates a threat of people like Hugo Chavez.

2006: Blocked services for Iran’s Khatami speech at Harvard

One controversy came when Mohammad Khatami, president of Iran from 1997 to 2005, was booked to speak at Harvard University. The topic, “Ethics of Tolerance in the Age of Violence,” was outrageous. During Khatami’s regime, he had shown little tolerance.

He said state funds could not be used to protect Khatami during his visit and that all requests from Harvard for police escorts or VIP courtesies would be denied. Amid protests, inside the walls of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government,
Khatami gave his speech, but the students didn’t let him off the hook. They asked challenging questions about human rights in Iran. Ironically, they were doing the same thing Khatami had imprisoned students in Iran for doing years earlier.

To win the war on jihad, we need friends in Muslim world

To win the war on jihad, we have to not only have a strong military of our own--and we need a stronger military--we also need to have strong friends around the world and help moderate Muslims reject the extreme.
Because ultimately the only people who can finally defeat these radical Islamic jihadists are the Muslims themselves.

Source: 2007 GOP Iowa Straw Poll debate
, Aug 5, 2007

Encourage others to welcome democracy, without military

Q: Pres. Bush said in his second inaugural address, “It is the policy of the US to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture.” Has Pres. Bush’s policy been a success, with all the elections going on?

A: Democracy is not defined by a vote. There have to be the underpinnings of democracy: education, health care, people recognizing they live in a place that has the rule of law. And that’s why our effort to spread democracy should continue, not to
just spread votes, but instead to encourage other people in the world to have the benefits that we enjoy and to welcome democracy. There’s no question in this country, we need to reach out, not just with our military might--although that we have, and
should keep it strong--but also reach out with our other great capabilities.

Q: Did Pres. Bush fail to appreciate the nuance you’re talking about now?

A: I’m not a carbon copy of Pres. Bush. And there are things I would do differently.

Move Muslim world toward modernity so they reject extreme

I think when there’s a country like Lebanon, that becomes a democracy, that instead of standing by and seeing how they do, we should have been working with the government there to assure that they have the rule of law, that they have agricultural and
economic policies that work for them, that they have schools that are not Wahhabi schools, that we try and make sure they have good health care.

We bring together not just America, but all the nations of the civilized world. We help draw these folks
toward modernity, as opposed to having them turn toward the violence and the extreme. And that kind of a campaign of values, combined with our strong arms, speaking softly but carrying a strong stick, as Teddy Roosevelt said, that will help move the
world to a safer place.

We’d love it if we could all just come home and not worry about the rest of the world. But the problem is, they attacked us on 9/11. We want to help move the world of Islam toward modernity so they can reject the extreme.

US is not arrogant, but we have resolve

Q: If it came down to Iran having a nuclear bomb, would you authorize the use of tactical nuclear weapons?

A: You don’t take options off the table. All over the world we’re seeing the same thing happening, and that is, people are testing the US.
We have to make sure they understand that we’re not arrogant. We have resolve. And we have the strength to protect our interests and to protect people who love liberty. For that to happen, we’re going to have not just to attack each one of these problems
one by one, but say, “How do we help move the world of Islam so that the moderate Muslims can reject the extreme?” And for that to happen, we’re going to have to have a strong military and an effort to combine with our allies in such a
way that we combine for an effort to help move Islam towards modernity. There is a war going on, and we need a broad response to make sure that these people have a different vision.